Andy Irvine, the former British and Irish Lions full-back who will manage the squad in Australia next year, has called for a radical rethink of the way Lions tours are scheduled. On the day that the Wales coach, Warren Gatland, was confirmed as head coach for the 10-match tour, Irvine was concerned the Lions will gather for the first fixture less than a week before the opening match as they look to secure their first series win since 1997.

Gatland's first match as Lions coach is a fixture in Hong Kong one week after the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro12 finals. The New Zealander hopes to announce his back-up team before the autumn internationals, conscious of the need to maximise the time the management spend together before the trip.

"The fixture calendar is far too congested," Irvine said. "Something will have to be done. We have one more Lions tour after next year under the current agreement and, when we renew it, we have to make sure that the Lions have proper preparation time. That means the four home unions sitting down with Sanzar [the international organising body of the game in the southern hemisphere], the clubs and the International Rugby Board to make sure that we get it right.

"The Lions are hugely popular, as the tens of thousands who follow every tour prove. It is to the benefit of everyone in the game that this unique institution continues because of the interest it generates but that means giving the coaches and players the preparation time they need. One solution would be putting the start of the tour back to the middle of June but, with the Rugby Championship having been expanded to include Argentina, we would need to see how that fitted in with the southern hemisphere schedule."

Irvine, together with the chairman of the Lions committee, Gerald Davies, championed the Lions as a cause for good in the modern game.

"The Lions is a remarkable sporting phenomenon," said Davies. "I am very disappointed that the domestic fixture schedule could not be changed but I am not going to complain. Whingeing is the first step to losing and all we are thinking about is winning the series."

The Lions have won three of their past 10 Tests, although the series in Australia in 2001 and South Africa three years ago were closely fought. Such is the appeal of the tourists that, even though the Sanzar nations each has only one tour every 12 years, the income generated over the six weeks is precious.

"That is another reasons why the Lions have to continue," Irvine said. "We were nearly lost in 1995 but enough administrators had the good sense to continue with us. The Lions have since grown in popularity and we have to make this work for the good of the game in both hemispheres."

Gatland straddles the hemispheres, having spent most of his playing career in New Zealand – he was a member of the Waikato team that thrashed the 1993 Lions – and most of his coaching years in Britain and Ireland. He is the second Kiwi to become the Lions head coach – Graham Henry led the last tour to Australia, in 2001 – but does not consider himself to be an outsider.

"Graham had only been in Wales for a couple of years but since 1989 I have spent most of my time coaching in Ireland, England and Wales," said Gatland. "I understand there will be criticism because I am not British or Irish but I think my considerable time here gives me an understanding. It is a massive honour for me."

Gatland, whose appointment was delayed for three months while he recovered from broken bones in his heels after an accident at his holiday home, said he would take a squad of 34 or 35 players, promising everyone a start in the first three weeks. Asked about the captaincy, he said it was far too early to contemplate, citing Chris Robshaw, Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll and Sam Warburton as contenders on the evidence of last season.

He will be in France this week talking to Lions-qualified players who are based there, starting with the Toulon prop Gethin Jenkins, a key figure on the 2009 tour. The Top 14 final takes place on 1 June, the same day the Lions face the Barbarians in Hong Kong, and Gatland wants his squad to leave together, citing the example of Nathan Hines three years ago who put the Lions before title-chasing Perpignan.

"I do not want players coming out late," said Gatland. "If that means having to make tough calls, so be it. All decisions will be made in the best interests of the squad. It is important that the Lions brand is successful. I learned a lot being part of the management in South Africa under Sir Ian McGeechan and there will be some continuity from that tour, but you also need to freshen things up."

As a New Zealander in Australia, although the Wallabies are coached by a Kiwi, Robbie Deans, Gatland will expect a partisan home media, cranked up by John O'Neill, the chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union.

"He is a master at what he does and influences and good on him," said Gatland. "Australia produced a masterstroke after losing in the World Cup last year to Ireland, complaining about the referee, and it had an impact on their quarter-final against South Africa. It was done subtly and with tact and they will do everything to make it difficult for us."